Discover the real-life superheroes behind the badges as we take a candid look at the men and women of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Learn how CBP is transforming its workforce to meet future challenges.
With the help of our esteemed guests, Ryan Scudder, David Aguilar, and Peter Jaquez, we illuminate the often-invisible struggles these agents endure and the extraordinary measures CBP is taking to support them. From the stories that tug at the heartstrings to the pioneering strategies in workforce care, this episode promises insights into the cultural shifts reshaping CBP and how they're revolutionizing the support for employees' physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. As we share the journey of this federal agency, you'll learn about the commitment to not just maintaining readiness but fortifying the very soul of the CBP community.
Featuring: Ryan Scudder, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP, David Aguilar, former CBP Acting Commissioner and former Chief of Border Patrol, and Peter Jaquez, Executive Director, Workforce Care Directorate, CBP
This discussion took place at the Annual HSDF Border Security Symposium in Washington, D.C. on December 12, 2023.
Follow HSDF THE PODCAST and never miss latest insider talk on government technology, innovation, and security. Visit the HSDF YouTube channel to view hours of insightful policy discussion. For more information about the Homeland Security & Defense Forum (HSDF), visit hsdf.org.
Discover the real-life superheroes behind the badges as we take a candid look at the men and women of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Learn how CBP is transforming its workforce to meet future challenges.
With the help of our esteemed guests, Ryan Scudder, David Aguilar, and Peter Jaquez, we illuminate the often-invisible struggles these agents endure and the extraordinary measures CBP is taking to support them. From the stories that tug at the heartstrings to the pioneering strategies in workforce care, this episode promises insights into the cultural shifts reshaping CBP and how they're revolutionizing the support for employees' physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. As we share the journey of this federal agency, you'll learn about the commitment to not just maintaining readiness but fortifying the very soul of the CBP community.
Featuring: Ryan Scudder, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP, David Aguilar, former CBP Acting Commissioner and former Chief of Border Patrol, and Peter Jaquez, Executive Director, Workforce Care Directorate, CBP
This discussion took place at the Annual HSDF Border Security Symposium in Washington, D.C. on December 12, 2023.
Follow HSDF THE PODCAST and never miss latest insider talk on government technology, innovation, and security. Visit the HSDF YouTube channel to view hours of insightful policy discussion. For more information about the Homeland Security & Defense Forum (HSDF), visit hsdf.org.
Announcer:
Welcome to HSDF the podcast, a collection of policy discussions on government technology and Homeland Security brought to you by the Homeland Security and Defense Forum. In this episode, learn about the challenges CBP faces in recruiting, training and retaining border agents, and how CBP is investing in its workforce to create career opportunities and special benefits for its agents, Featuring Ryan Scutter from CBP Enterprise Services, David Aguilar, former CBP commissioner, and Peter Jaques, Executive Director at CBP's Workforce Care Directorate. This discussion took place at the annual HSDF Border Security Symposium in Washington DC on December 12, 2023.
Ryan Scudder:
Good afternoon everyone. It's a pleasure to be here with you. We're going to bring it down a little bit out of the technology realm a little bit after that. Trust me, I talk with Ed Mays on a regular basis. He brings quantum computing and everything down to my level. So it's an amazing conversation. But this afternoon I have the honor of introducing the Workforce Fireside Chat between Executive Director Peter Jaques and Chief Aguilar, and they had me introducing Chief Aguilar. I don't think anybody in this room needs me to introduce Chief Aguilar, but I will tell you and we're just talking about he said he remembers me a lot younger I was over 20 years ago, but starting my 30th year in government service and Chief Aguilar has been my chief for most of that for a very long time and Workforce Care is his number one goal. But, peter Jaques, if you don't know him, executive Director now, he also grew up within the Border Patrol. Last before I brought him over to run Workforce Care, he was the acting Chief Patrol Agent for El Paso during the beginnings of the surges that you see now. So he has a lot of experience in the Border Patrol and working with the workforce.
Ryan Scudder:
Before I turn it over to them, I want to take a little deeper dive into our agency's workforce efforts, the Workforce Care. Obviously the workforce is our greatest asset. I mean, we all know that. Right, you heard them say you always got to have the human in the loop. Right, the computer should not be making those decisions. And we were talking backstage a little bit about the pressures of if you're getting all this information all the time and having to be right all the time. And the expectation is, if you have more information you're going to be right all the time. That's a huge stress on the workforce and they're feeling it. But it's not just about the employees, it's also to strengthen the well-being of their families as well, because it's got to be home and work together, because that stress reverberates. So initiatives that support the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual, the health resources, are the investment in mission readiness, and the mission readiness is what helps them get their job done. So CBP strives to be a model across the federal government for how an agency should care for its workforce.
Ryan Scudder:
Uniformed and non-uniformed employees alike experience that workplace-related stress that we're talking about. But as law enforcement agencies, the demands of our mission often take a toll on the employees and their families. So by continuing to improve that access to resources and instituting the risk management practices, cbp is establishing that culture that prioritizes that physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of the employees and their families. So we're going to continue to engage with the employees across the agency to better identify and understand those common individual and organizational sources of stress, like I mentioned, the feeling that you have to be right all the time and faster and better every single day. So, although CBP may never eliminate all those adverse stressors, we're going to provide the well-being resources to lessen those stressors and increase the resilience. So the long-term improvements in the employee wellness and resilience necessitate cultural change.
Ryan Scudder:
That stigma of asking for help is particularly strong in law enforcement agencies. We're really not good at asking for help whenever you're the person that usually people ask help from. It's a terrible stigma. We're getting through that. It's one of our main focuses. But we're striving to create that culture that consistently reinforces and encourages the help-seeking behaviors. So we're focusing on building trust, which is the key part. You'll hear a lot of that from Pete today. Building that trust so the employees have confidence that they'll receive the care and the support they need within the jobs and at home, removing the barriers to seeking help. You hear a lot about that, and fostering that culture of trust enables CBP employees to operate at their best. So I'd like to turn it over to Chief Aguilar and XT Jaquez now. Thank you all very much.
David Aguilar:
I'm going to let them do the talking on this one, and we've heard a lot about operational requirements, operational needs, but nobody could have put it better than the chief when he sat here this morning With every piece of equipment that we had, what we envisioned we cannot do the job with the most critical part of our organization, that's our men and women. That's our men and women. They are the most critical part. They're the key to getting the job done and continuing to get better at what we do. That's why I was excited to have Pete Peter here with me and Chief Scudder. We've known each other for many, many years. We were a lot younger or some thinner, more hair, but if there's one thing I can say about both of these individuals is it is about getting involved in the job that they do. I know both of them to be individuals that wouldn't be doing this job unless their heart was in it. Peter here has been a leader. Throughout his career he's been a strategist I'm going to ask you a little bit about that here in a second but I can think of no better individual to be heading up this new workforce wellness directorate, because I know he cares. I know he's been in the field. I know he himself has been tested, as I have, as Chief Scudder has been tested Life balance, challenges, everything else that's there. This is a new directorate. It is something that we've needed for a long, long time. I'll pass it on to him to open it up here in just a second.
David Aguilar:
We spoke in the hallway a few minutes ago. I started in Border Patrol a long time ago. Looking back to when I first started off, I wish we had back then what, peter, you are bringing to the forefront, because there were so many men and women that needed this kind of support. We just didn't have it. The rest of us that were in leadership positions didn't have not that, we didn't have the time. We were being overcome by so many other activities that we just couldn't dedicate the time that we needed to. Let me hand it over to you. Give us a sense of what it is you're doing, your vision, what your responsibilities are and anything else you'd like industry to hear.
Peter Jaquez:
First of all, thank you, appreciate you having me come out and participate in this event. I think it's important to get the word out on what CBP is doing, specifically in terms of the wellness and resilience of our workforce. I want to take a couple of minutes to frame the picture of what CBP has going on right now. We're a workforce of over 64,000 people. When you look back at the history of CBP, we're relatively young as it relates to government service. We're 20 years old. But here we are making headway on a lot of pieces that go from technology to operations to now wellness and resilience, which I think is it speaks volumes to our leadership and our ability to adapt to what's being thrown at us. In terms of the operational environment, border Patrol has been in existence for nearly 100 years. Right, this may will be this. Next may will be 100 years customs, 200 years of service. The culture within both those organizations has always been rubbed some dirt on it, get it done, and you know what. We will continue to get it done. We will continue with that mantra, but we never really took time to stop and assess the wellness of our workforce, the resilience of our workforce, whatever it is, whether it's generational or just you know times have changed. We really need to focus on our workforce. I believe you know I don't like to use the term resilience too much, because my belief is that CBP has already proven that we are resilient.
Peter Jaquez:
When you look back at COVID, the United States shut down, people were sent home, but CBP did not shut down. Cbp officers and agents continued to work and do that job in spite of everything that was going on, in spite of all the difficulties that were surrounding you know COVID. Our employees were face front with migrants coming in and dealing with that situation daily. Cbp employees are resilient. Cbp employees are dedicated. You will not find a more dedicated group of men and women in this government to make sure that our homeland is secure. It's that's, you know, goes without saying. So now my job is to come in and provide those support resources for those employees.
Peter Jaquez:
You know, on top of the stressors of life which we all have, you're dealing with the situation on the border, which entails thousands of migrants sitting in front of CBP employees every single day. Without getting into the details of too much information and data, I'll tell you right now, when you're averaging over 5,000 encounters on a daily basis. I want you to picture. There is one CBP employee sitting in front of each one of those people. Every single day, every single day, there is a touch point with a CBP employee and every single day our staff is dealing with the stories that those migrants have to say.
Peter Jaquez:
This isn't making a political statement, this is putting it out there. There is not one story that is told to an agent that says my life is good not one, and our employees go home with that. That also leads on to our non uniform staff, because they're tasked with providing the support necessary for our employees. So when we talk about workforce care, I want to make very clear that our care is for all employees, both the non uniform and the uniform personnel, the CBP, because every single one of those is critical to the mission.
David Aguilar:
Thank you so the XT mentioned a couple of things that are very meaningful dedicated workforce, resilient workforce, strong workforce.
David Aguilar:
I would add that all of those are absolutely correct, but they also come at a cost.
David Aguilar:
They come at a cost at the end of the day when that officer goes home, to his or her family, support infrastructure, and I mean this is just a fact. As you said, rob, dirt on our, didn't keep on going. We are trained that they are trained to have a culture of strength and dedication, resilience, and what that mostly translates to is keeping it all inside, and that comes at a cost of the families, that comes at a cost of the individual officer, that comes to the cost of that nucleus. So, saying that, how much outreach Are we now doing? One to the officer, which is critical, ensuring that they trust us to support them, and then also the family and the reason I mentioned the family and I know you've heard me say this before I don't think any one of us could do the job that we're doing, that we have done or that we will do, without that support of that family Group. How much a part of CBP do you consider the families of these officers?
Peter Jaquez:
To be, you know, chief. I think it's a. It's a great point and if I could share, you know, personal experience. So you mentioned last year I was an El Paso is the acting chief and you know, when you're dealing with the numbers that we dealt with and the fact, you know I'd go to every muster and talk with the troops and of course they voice their frustration, their concern, and it was on me to act, it was on me to make a decision. It didn't matter that my wife supported me for all 26 years of my service. There is no one outside of work that really understood everything that we were dealing with. So that ability to vent isn't always readily available. That causes more stress in itself and so, by you know, obviously, looking at what our culture is, we have to gain employee trust with the information they're going to provide us. We want to remove that stigma that is, if I ask for help, they're going to take my badge and gun away so that I have to sit behind a desk and answer phone calls. We definitely want to get away from that. We put too much money and effort into getting people hired and trained To turn around and remove them because they're not fit for duty.
Peter Jaquez:
You know, organizationally, CBP, I think, is taking tremendous strides in some of the policy changes that we put into place. You know, it's one thing to say take care of your workforce is another thing to actually craft the policies that holds your leadership and management accountable. Taking care of the workforce, you know. So that's to me that's a very critical piece. Uh, gaining the employee trust and gaining the family trust, you know, if you have spouse or children, that that you know if we can connect with them, I guarantee you that we'll connect with the employees. Uh, I recently had my team speak with a, a spouse, a surviving spouse of an employee who committed suicide, and she had told us if I knew of ways to connect with you. I could have told you when I started to see red flags, and that irks me because we could have saved somebody right. I want to make sure that we get out there, that our message is out there, that we're connecting with the families, you know, because those are the first people that will notice a change in our workforce exactly so.
David Aguilar:
There's the family brother, sister, spouse, uh, an extended family and then there is CBP family family uh, I met me somewhere here a few minutes, I can't, I believe, your communications director, uh, and when you introduced me to him, I was very glad to hear that you had a communications director, because that is what's critical to both the family biological family and to CBP family, correct? So can you share with us what are the communication efforts that you're undertaking and, frankly, is there anything that industry might be able to help with training, support, whatever do you think might, uh, might benefit?
Peter Jaquez:
you know, when it comes to communication right, the traditional medium for communication for us internally has always been an email and and and I can tell you from you know, my time in service a border patrol agent comes into the office, goes to the armory, gets their equipment, goes to the muster room, gets their assignment and gets their guidance and then they go to the field. They don't sit in front of a computer to read the emails that my team is sending out. I know this, and so we're definitely looking at ways to connect with the employees on mobile applications, whether it's on their personal phone, on their government phone. Another piece and I mentioned this before is the trust piece. I want to be able to provide our employees with self-help tools that are at the tips of their fingers, rather than having them come in right. If I can get their trust first to access self-help on an application, that'll open the door to gaining that trust, or I can get them in front of a clinician or a doctor, you know. So it's important to to make sure that I'm providing that support.
Peter Jaquez:
Another piece that we're working on and this is a study that that you know is pretty much the the story throughout all law enforcement sleep. Our workforce isn't getting the right amount of sleep and if they don't get the right amount of sleep, because of the stress that they're dealing with, they're not going to come to work and be 100, and so you know what, what technology is out there in terms of wearable technology that can give me some of that aggregate data. You know that we can actually focus and and turn into action with programs and resources.
David Aguilar:
I mean, these are all things that we're looking at, you know, going forward yeah, I, I'm kind of thinking here as as as peter's peter is uh talking, uh, just just to give this group a sense, I was a sitting chief when, the day that we signed the board of patrol foundation into an entity, that day one of our officers was ambushed, shot and killed in california had the job, of course, of notifications and things that nature. We didn't. We weren't any work close to what we are today and it was, it's, it's the most difficult job that any anybody can do. Notifying the family, but getting back to the concept of family and I won't mention names uh, when I spoke to the spouse, I said what I felt I needed to say, but I was astounded that when she did respond, the second question she had was how are the rest of the agents doing?
David Aguilar:
Because, and to this day, she still cares about the foundation and what we're doing, and every time that a suicide occurs, we hear from family members. So that's how close this, this, this uh, and tighten it this, this family unit is. I'm in the region I mentioned, that is, you mentioned suicides and we talked about this earlier, whether we could talk about that, because it's a touchy subject, and you said yes, and thank you for that, because I think we should be able to talk about suicides. What can you tell us about what is happening and what we might we industry might be able to do to assist in any way?
Peter Jaquez:
You know we've seen a couple of pieces on on on technology with the delivery of training. So most often times we do training on the computer. You go into a system, you play a couple of videos, you click some answers, you completed with the training. It's a requirement, it's done. This year we took a change in direction and actually implemented A mandate that every single cbp employee was going to go through in person suicide and awareness training, step one. This is critical because it made everybody sit in a class and actually engage first hand With someone who had an experience or background in this field.
Peter Jaquez:
What I look at other opportunities are you know, I've actually tried training through an oculus and I can tell you that from my perspective, when you're speaking with someone who's contemplating suicide or having those ideations, that conversation is never easy and there's certain things that you can say that can trigger a person to walk away and never seek your help again.
Peter Jaquez:
And so putting our employees through some sort of training like that, first person training, would definitely assist in kind of getting them that perspective so they know what they're getting into when they have that hard conversation, because we could see the signs of suicide. But how many people are actually gonna take the time to engage or say someone else will talk to him. I don't know that I can handle this conversation. It happens, you know. So we definitely look at those things. Like I said, any world will technology that lets us know when an heart rate, emotions change, you know. But all this is very sensitive information that employees don't want to share, right? So again we go back to the trust piece in the culture piece, making sure that whatever information we get, we don't use it against the employees.
David Aguilar:
So and I know you've gone through the same thing throughout careers within military law enforcement, federal law enforcement the life balance is, is becomes a challenge. What. One of the one of the biggest challenges that personally I had was moving my family a total of 10 times over that 35 year career. Very difficult, coming home and telling my junior high, freshman and elementary school child that we're moving again. Life balance what? What is it that we can do when I say we know I'm talking the organization to help manage that life balance, having that officer, that agent, that that representative of CBP Recognize that that life balance is as important as carrying out those duties that are expected of him or her.
Peter Jaquez:
What you know. We have a lot of programs in our, in our portfolio that really are put there to help the employee and the families. You know the road to suicide is not linear, right? I mean there are so many ways that an employee could get to that, so many triggers, right, whether it be financial, domestic. You know, dealing with your children, work just compounds that, and so, given the training and the ability for our employees to have someone to connect with, learn what, what tools they can use to deal with those situations. I mean, I'm not sitting here telling you that we're gonna wipe away everybody struggles. That's not. That's not gonna happen.
Peter Jaquez:
What I want to tell you and everybody is that I'm gonna do my best to give the workforce the tools that they need to help get through life right, to get through life and succeed and do better, come to work in a better mindset, come to work and give us their one hundred percent right and then balance that with life. We got, for example, backup care. You know, a big issue within the border patrol from when I was in the organization was child care. Something so simple, but it causes a lot of stress when you're on a rotating shift and you don't get weekends and holidays off. You know you're working midnights, cvp is twenty four seven and daycare is not.
Peter Jaquez:
And how can we better improve that capability right? How can we improve the tools work? We're exploring options to try and make that, you know, more accessible. You know clinical support again twenty four seven, mission. If a person's on midnight's, who can they call it midnight to get help? You know, I want to make sure that our tools are accessible and really available for the employees when, whenever, they need them whenever, wherever they need them.
David Aguilar:
So I'm going to encourage industry. You heard the chief this morning talk about the challenges that our men and women have. You heard the challenges that we have on taking care of our men and women. You may not be in this industry of life balance and workforce, wellness and stuff things that nature, but you're a part of the family, the chief said at this morning. You're a critical part of that family, of helping us get our job done. This is a big part of helping cvp get their job done. So I would invite you, I would challenge you, anything that you think you can do, whether it is because you provided or you think of something. Please and I don't do this often I beg of you, please help them. Take care of your family. That protects your family that you're a big part of director. Thank you very much and best of luck going forward thank you for tuning in.
Announcer:
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